Download Evidence Types

Direct
Evidence
Biological
Circumstantial
Physical

Direct-statement made under oath
› Proves fact without the necessity of involvement
or guesses
› When true, it overwhelmingly establishes fact

Circumstantial-any object or material that is
relevant to a crime
› A series of circumstances that supports an
assumption
 Physical-fibers, fingerprints, documents, soil, drugs,
tool marks, impressions, glass, etc…
 Biological-hair, body fluids, bodies
Be more reliable than eye-witness
testimony
 Prove that a crime has been committed
 Corroborate or refute testimony
 Link a suspect or victim to a crime
 Establish ID of persons related to a crime
 Allow reconstructions to be responsible
 Answer questions about what took
place, # of people involved, sequence
of events

Recognized as potential evidence
 Collected in an appropriate manner
 Preserved properly
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Failure to do this could result in:
› The erroneous conviction of an innocent
party
› The inability to convict a guilty party
Transient-temporary, easily lost or
changed, usually observed by the 1st
responder
 Pattern-produced by direct contact
between 2 objects, an object and a
person, or 2 persons
 Conditional-produced by a specific
event or action, important in
reconstruction

Transfer-produced by temporary indirect
contact between persons and objects
 Associative-something that may
associate a victim or suspect with the
scene or each other

Odor-putrefication, perfume, gasoline,
urine, burning, explosives, tobacco/drug
smoke
 Temperature-surroundings, car hood,
coffee, bathtub, body
 Impressions-footprints, teeth marks in soft
food, tire marks or shoe prints on certain
surfaces
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Mostly in the form of imprints, impressions,
striations, markings, fractures, or deposits
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Blood spatter
Glass fracture
Burn patterns
Furniture position
Projectile trajectory
Tire/skid marks
Clothing distribution
Gunpowder residue
Material damage
Body position
Toolmarks
Modus Operandi
Light-headlights, lighting conditions,
ambient light
 Smoke-color, direction of travel, density,
odor
 Fire-color and direction of flames, speed
of spread, temperature and condition
 Location-injuries/wounds, bloodstains,
vehicles, weapons, cartridge cases,
broken glass

Vehicles-doors locked/unlocked,
windows open/closed, radio on/off,
odometer mileage
 Body-position and types of wounds, rigor
mortis, liver mortis, algor mortis
 Scene-condition of furniture, doors, and
windows, disturbances/signs of struggle

Biological-blood, semen, saliva, sweat,
tears, hair, bone, tissues, urine, feces,
animal material, insects, bacteria, fungi,
plants
 Chemical-fibers, glass, soil, gun powder,
metals, minerals, narcotics, drugs, paper,
ink, cosmetics, paint, plastics, lubricants,
fertilizer

Physical-fingerprints, footprints, shoe
prints, handwriting, firearms, tire marks,
tool marks, type writing
 Miscellaneous-laundry marks, voice
analysis, polygraph, photography, stress
evaluation, psycholinguistic analysis,
vehicle ID
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Individual-links evidence to a particular
person or single source
› Broken glass, hair, skin cells, license plate

Class-common to a group of objects or
persons
› Most fibers
Crime Scene
Victim
Suspect
Remember Locard’s Principle!